Tuesday, 26 April 2016

2 Yuma Trucks: Mariscos Güero and Taqueria San Pedro

Every year the Yuman food truck culture spawns more spots. Here's a couple:

Mariscos Güero

Angie, Tina's manager at work, was raving about a fantastic seafood molcajete at a place on Ave B, just a little south of 8th Street. So a couple of weeks later Tina and I found the place, Mariscos Güero, tucked behind another truck on the east side of B:

There are a few tables and folding chairs sheltered under canvas with windbreaks on all sides. On the truck there’s a menu with no prices (though prices are fair):

On our first visit, in the evening, there were few customers (and the nice folks at the truck said they would be closing evenings once the main season was over). At weekday lunch, the place can be quite busy:

On our first visit, Tina and I had a molcajete:

It was packed with cooked shrimp, octopus, and surimi. The seafood was mixed with large slices of red onion and cucumber pieces, all topped with generous wedges of avocado. The sauce was exceptional –flavors of seafood, lime, chili spice, and even a touch of soy sauce. Overall very good.

We also ordered a ceviche tostada:

Also very good. The sweetness of the fresh raw and cooked shrimp came through the lime. The fresh chopped onions and cucumbers and crunchy tortilla gave textural balance.

On my next visit, I ordered two fish and one shrimp taco:

Here's a close-up of a fish taco:

The tortilla, cabbage, and tomato were fresh and fine, but the crema was awfully thin and lacking in flavor. While the breading on the seafoods was not crunchy, neither the fish nor shrimp were overcooked so they tasted fresh and moist.

On my last visit, it was time for a campechana:

That's huge. And it is filled with a lot of good stuff:

When I ordered the mixed seafood cocktail, I was asked if I wanted it with "blood clam." "Sure," I answered, "con todo." I hadn't run across a campechana with blood clam (also known as concha negra, black clam) since Tio Juan’s disappeared from 8th Street. Here is one of them:

In any case, I am still alive and feeling good, so I guess I dodged another bullet (picture smiley face of your choice here). I also had the joy of consuming a really wonderful campechana. The octopus and shrimp were not overcooked. The surimi had a pleasant sweetness that I liked. But the mollusks were the stars: the abundant octopus had a perfect chewiness and octopus flavor; the clams had a different chew and were distinctly clammy; and the few fresh bay scallops were tender and lightly flavored. The cocktail juice tasted of cooking water, tomato sauce, (Clamoto?), lime juice, and a hint of soy. With a little bit of salsa it was perfect for my palate.

Taqueria San Pedro

This taco stand on 8th Street has long been a favorite of Tina and me. Though they quit serving hotdogs, their carne asada and other tacos, as well as the attractive ramada area, made it a good place for a quick dinner.

We had noticed, however, that the place seemed to be deteriorating slowly – the leather seats becoming ragged and torn. Then one evening San Pedro was not open. No sign and no sign of life. Oh well, we shrugged, that's the world of taco trucks.

A couple of months ago, we were cruising 8th Street and saw billows of fragrant looking smoke rising from the back of a lot. "Oh My God," Tina exclaimed, "it's San Pedro!" And so it was:

Pedro himself was still there being grillmaster. But the interior had been renovated – now more closed off and refurnished:

Wow. Fancy tables and chairs, a tiled floor, even a heater. The menu, still very small, is on every napkin dispenser:

After we ordered, the first thing brought over was a cup of frijoles:

Good, simple pinto beans in a light broth. Good by themselves, but made even better by adding some of the condiments:

Notice the spicy and the roasted salsa. The guacamole sauce was thinner than eight years ago, and many of the other items were nothing special. However, we really enjoyed the mild and fresh pico de gallo:

and loved the roasted jalapenos, mellowed and sweetened by the grill:

Then came volcanes:

Basically, a volcan is just a vampira except that the cheese goes atop the carne asada rather than between the meat and the desiccated corn tortilla. This was excellent, crunchy and toothsome with meaty asada.

Tripa is difficult to get right. Sometimes too musty, often too rubbery, and usually too flavorless. This one, however, was perfect. Crunchy in places with a little char, and what was not crunchy was tender chewy. Porky good. Yum.

It was great to see San Pedro open abd thriving, and prices at both places are good, Jason. That huge campechana with a Mexican Coke was $15. And Tina and my first meal with 2 waters came to $20.

When Kirk ventured over to Yuma back in 2005, Soo, we were able to visit most of the trucks in town in two days. Now there is a cluster of trucks off Fortuna in Foothills, two different groups on Pacific, several more carts along Ave B, and a bunch scattered along 8th St. I must confess that I haven't posted about enough of them.

Damn we're spoiled. I grew up around the gulf of Mexico and learned at a very young age on how to shuck a crab really quick. Dungeons crab are the easiest and meatiest but not as sweet as the smaller blue crab especially one with the roe.
Now I want crab.

Yeh, billy, I sill have memories of having a large geoduck (mirugai) clam steak on the Oregon coast back in 1980. It was the same price as fried oysters, deep fried shrimp, or salmon fillet. It was also commonly included in basic sushi combos back then. Wild seafood gets rarer and rarer.